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What would one consider a minimum tithe to the Deathwatch to be? Does the Deathwatch have an upper limit on their tithe, or is it possible that they would accept multiple squads or more to join from a single chapter at one time? I’ve asked before about instances of mass conscription to the Deathwatch, but what are the regular upper limitations on recruitment?

you have to understand, the death watch doesn't show up to a chapter world and say "give us X" rather recruitment is done via ancient pacts agreement and honor. there isn't a whole lot of information but, generally speaking. what little we do see always shows marines being sent individually. I suspect that some chapters may send more then 1 marine, but not all at the same time. so that once the rotation is set up, the chapter may have 5-10 marines in the death watch, with 1 rotating out each year to be replaced. Keep in mind, Death watch members are VETERANS a Veteran marine is a rare and precious commodity. chapters aren't going to lightly send them off, and chances are only the biggest most eistablished chapters could afford to send several out at once.

So... multiple ultramarines being sent to the death watch, sure makes sense. multiple fleshtearers? .. less likely

BrianDavion wrote:
you have to understand, the death watch doesn't show up to a chapter world and say "give us X" rather recruitment is done via ancient pacts agreement and honor. there isn't a whole lot of information but, generally speaking. what little we do see always shows marines being sent individually. I suspect that some chapters may send more then 1 marine, but not all at the same time. so that once the rotation is set up, the chapter may have 5-10 marines in the death watch, with 1 rotating out each year to be replaced. Keep in mind, Death watch members are VETERANS a Veteran marine is a rare and precious commodity. chapters aren't going to lightly send them off, and chances are only the biggest most eistablished chapters could afford to send several out at once.

So... multiple ultramarines being sent to the death watch, sure makes sense. multiple fleshtearers? .. less likely

I understand that. I’m getting at something a bit different. If a chapter would willingly send multiple veterans per tithe, would there be an upper limit, you reckon? The mindset is a chapter sends a squad’s worth of the best, hopes they all survive, have the squad come back with more experience and glory. (Of course they won’t be using xenotech or all the advanced tactics of the Deathwatch, but they would certainly be much greater heroes with much more unique and valuable battlefield experience.)

 Apple Peel wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:
you have to understand, the death watch doesn't show up to a chapter world and say "give us X" rather recruitment is done via ancient pacts agreement and honor. there isn't a whole lot of information but, generally speaking. what little we do see always shows marines being sent individually. I suspect that some chapters may send more then 1 marine, but not all at the same time. so that once the rotation is set up, the chapter may have 5-10 marines in the death watch, with 1 rotating out each year to be replaced. Keep in mind, Death watch members are VETERANS a Veteran marine is a rare and precious commodity. chapters aren't going to lightly send them off, and chances are only the biggest most eistablished chapters could afford to send several out at once.

So... multiple ultramarines being sent to the death watch, sure makes sense. multiple fleshtearers? .. less likely

I understand that. I’m getting at something a bit different. If a chapter would willingly send multiple veterans per tithe, would there be an upper limit, you reckon? The mindset is a chapter sends a squad’s worth of the best, hopes they all survive, have the squad come back with more experience and glory. (Of course they won’t be using xenotech or all the advanced tactics of the Deathwatch, but they would certainly be much greater heroes with much more unique and valuable battlefield experience.)

they could, but it'd be rare and most likely they'd be assigned to differant watch stations and not return at the same time. the death watch wouldn't keep that squad together. (it kinda defeats the point)

Most of the time it will be single members, but occasionally it could be more. If a chapter has successfully recruited beyond 1000 battle ready Astartes? Sure, send 7 to the Deathwatch. A chapter has been critically damaged down to 18 Astartes? Accept your extinction with grace and join the Deathwatch to a man. Those would be extreme measures though, and usually it will be one Astartes at a time, either those who have shown extreme aptitude for Xenos killing, those who seek the renown of being part of the Deathwatch, or those who are just a pain for the Chapter leadership to deal with.

I can see there being occasions when a chapter would sent an entire squad to join the Deathwatch - during an internal audit the chapter master realises that they don't have anyone with experience fighting Xenos X, so they request that squad Y has a short Deathwatch deployment against Xenos X to gain experience to bring back to the chapter.

And don't forget for some Chapters it's an "honour" to send your Chapters "best" to the Deathwatch.

 BaconCatBug wrote:
And don't forget for some Chapters it's an "honour" to send your Chapters "best" to the Deathwatch.

Not really, unless they want to tarnish their good name by sending a loose cannon on such a prestigious assignment. They can just as easily get rid of an unwanted person by having him go in first during some extremely dangerous action - first man boarding a ship or assaulting a bunker, for example. He dies, gets added to the rolls as "gloriously and heroically killed in action", the Chapter is rid of him and no one is the wiser.

The Space Wolf leadership absolutely despise Lukas the Trickster, for example, but they'd never inflict him on some poor Deathwatch Station Commander.

Kinstryfe wrote:
Most of the time it will be single members, but occasionally it could be more. If a chapter has successfully recruited beyond 1000 battle ready Astartes? Sure, send 7 to the Deathwatch. A chapter has been critically damaged down to 18 Astartes? Accept your extinction with grace and join the Deathwatch to a man. Those would be extreme measures though, and usually it will be one Astartes at a time, either those who have shown extreme aptitude for Xenos killing, those who seek the renown of being part of the Deathwatch, or those who are just a pain for the Chapter leadership to deal with.

in fairnes those 18 astartes are more likely to camp out on their home world and slowly reconsisute.

BrianDavion wrote:

Kinstryfe wrote:
Most of the time it will be single members, but occasionally it could be more. If a chapter has successfully recruited beyond 1000 battle ready Astartes? Sure, send 7 to the Deathwatch. A chapter has been critically damaged down to 18 Astartes? Accept your extinction with grace and join the Deathwatch to a man. Those would be extreme measures though, and usually it will be one Astartes at a time, either those who have shown extreme aptitude for Xenos killing, those who seek the renown of being part of the Deathwatch, or those who are just a pain for the Chapter leadership to deal with.

in fairnes those 18 astartes are more likely to camp out on their home world and slowly reconsisute.

Unless that chapter got real lucky and a good number of those 18 are command staff and apothecaries I don't see the average chapter coming back from loses that bad. The only background I really remember seeing of a chapter coming back from that is a first founder and that's usually through an infusion of your successors and some spare paint.

HoundsofDemos wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:

Kinstryfe wrote:
Most of the time it will be single members, but occasionally it could be more. If a chapter has successfully recruited beyond 1000 battle ready Astartes? Sure, send 7 to the Deathwatch. A chapter has been critically damaged down to 18 Astartes? Accept your extinction with grace and join the Deathwatch to a man. Those would be extreme measures though, and usually it will be one Astartes at a time, either those who have shown extreme aptitude for Xenos killing, those who seek the renown of being part of the Deathwatch, or those who are just a pain for the Chapter leadership to deal with.

in fairnes those 18 astartes are more likely to camp out on their home world and slowly reconsisute.

Unless that chapter got real lucky and a good number of those 18 are command staff and apothecaries I don't see the average chapter coming back from loses that bad. The only background I really remember seeing of a chapter coming back from that is a first founder and that's usually through an infusion of your successors and some spare paint.

the closest canon example we have is the Celestial Lions. and in that case they had a Black Templars crusade on hand specificly to assist them, as well as the Emperor's Spears in the area.

HoundsofDemos wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:

Kinstryfe wrote:
Most of the time it will be single members, but occasionally it could be more. If a chapter has successfully recruited beyond 1000 battle ready Astartes? Sure, send 7 to the Deathwatch. A chapter has been critically damaged down to 18 Astartes? Accept your extinction with grace and join the Deathwatch to a man. Those would be extreme measures though, and usually it will be one Astartes at a time, either those who have shown extreme aptitude for Xenos killing, those who seek the renown of being part of the Deathwatch, or those who are just a pain for the Chapter leadership to deal with.

in fairnes those 18 astartes are more likely to camp out on their home world and slowly reconsisute.

Unless that chapter got real lucky and a good number of those 18 are command staff and apothecaries I don't see the average chapter coming back from loses that bad. The only background I really remember seeing of a chapter coming back from that is a first founder and that's usually through an infusion of your successors and some spare paint.

The Celestial Lions have come back from less, albeit with the help of the Black Templars.

 BaconCatBug wrote:

HoundsofDemos wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:

Kinstryfe wrote:
Most of the time it will be single members, but occasionally it could be more. If a chapter has successfully recruited beyond 1000 battle ready Astartes? Sure, send 7 to the Deathwatch. A chapter has been critically damaged down to 18 Astartes? Accept your extinction with grace and join the Deathwatch to a man. Those would be extreme measures though, and usually it will be one Astartes at a time, either those who have shown extreme aptitude for Xenos killing, those who seek the renown of being part of the Deathwatch, or those who are just a pain for the Chapter leadership to deal with.

in fairnes those 18 astartes are more likely to camp out on their home world and slowly reconsisute.

Unless that chapter got real lucky and a good number of those 18 are command staff and apothecaries I don't see the average chapter coming back from loses that bad. The only background I really remember seeing of a chapter coming back from that is a first founder and that's usually through an infusion of your successors and some spare paint.

The Celestial Lions have come back from less, albeit with the help of the Black Templars.

thats kinda the thing BCB, they where still coming back from that when it happened. apparently after the third war for Armageddon they never really had time to rebuild due to the great rift. but yeah there is a hope for them. they apparently evacuated their homeworld in time.

BrianDavion wrote:
thats kinda the thing BCB, they where still coming back from that when it happened. apparently after the third war for Armageddon they never really had time to rebuild due to the great rift. but yeah there is a hope for them. they apparently evacuated their homeworld in time.

Lots of Ork Snipers flying about since the Rift opened, eh?

 BaconCatBug wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:
thats kinda the thing BCB, they where still coming back from that when it happened. apparently after the third war for Armageddon they never really had time to rebuild due to the great rift. but yeah there is a hope for them. they apparently evacuated their homeworld in time.

Lots of Ork Snipers flying about since the Rift opened, eh?

well what happened is the Celestial Lions are part of a 3 chapter grouping of them, the star scropions and the emperor's spears, the star scorpions had gone missing centuries ago (their heledry given to the mentor legion, they're not fans of the mentors as a result) with the loss of the star scorpions and the near destruction of the Lions, this left only the spears to protect an area of space that had once had 3 full chapters devoted to it. Following the great rift opening, a chaos warband named the pure moved in and started eistablishing their little own chaos state. the Lions have been helping fight them so haven't had time to recover.



I do reccomend the emperor's Spear. solid book, I meanm it's by ADB so course it is, but yeah, fun book and gives a good look at things. definatly helps put the state of Imperium Nihlus in some contrast. if you think the current lore is too "bright and hopeful" this should be a good read.